I went snow skiing for the first time in my mid twenties. My husband at the time took me to Lake Tahoe, Nevada for my birthday. It was snow covered and beautiful. We rented our boots and skis and I signed up for a lesson. I got buckled into my ski boots, walked out the door and fell. Getting up from there was my first and thankfully, last nightmare of the day. Here’s why. The first thing the instructor said was “Your breath is your center. It is how you balance.” Now, at that point, I had had 6 years of vocal training, several years as a vocal coach and a lot of professional performing experience. My immediate thought was, “I got this.” I was right. I never fell again.

Let me explain. As mentioned earlier, your breath is your center. In order to vocalize we need air. So it makes sense then that if I am vocalizing I am using my breath and I will be centered.
As a vocal coach, an exercise that I suggest to all of my clients is humming. It is a great way to warm up and I use it to teach different aspects of mechanics. And humming, vocalizing, as stated above, is how we get centered.

Without proper breath support, you cannot hum. Without proper breath support, you cannot speak. Proper breath support creates vibration in the vocal cords, which creates healthy sound. Fortunately, proper breath support happens naturally. You’ve been speaking correctly, and most likely efficiently, your whole life, which means your body is creating proper breath support for you.

Aside from knowing this, I live this. I have practiced this for years. Strong, supported breathing is my focus every day, so when the instructor mentioned being centered and breathing I knew I would be fine. Every time I felt even slightly off balance, I would hum and was immediately centered and back in balance. I would hum for 1 or 2 seconds. Since I was trying to ski, the humming would stop and then I’d get off balance and hum again which centered me. It was a loop of “ahhh I’m gonna fall” then “hmmm hmmmmm” all day. It was constant, but it worked.

If you’d like to learn how humming can help you in your life contact me at Melissa@VocalMajic.com